This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised. Nearly all adults living on Martinique and neighboring Guadalupe have traces of

clodicone in their blood.

Tons of the chemical was sprayed on banana crops, contaminating soil, rivers and coastal waters.

Stop me if you've heard this one.

In the late 1490s, a Spanish explorer named Christopher Columbus washed ashore a beautiful

land inhabited by indigenous people.

In a few centuries time, after some resistance, those indigenous people would be eradicated by British and French settlers through violence, disease, or free boat rise to Dominica, and replaced with enslaved Africans.

Obviously, I'm talking about the Caribbean archipelago of Guadalupe in the French West Indies.

In a few more bloody centuries, Guadalupe and the neighboring island of Martinique would

officially become French territories.

The sugar cane turned into banana plantations.

Slavery was abolished, at least on paper anyway. The same people

own the land, make the rules, and collect all the money. At the same time, the approximately

750,000 new natives of the islands suffer from chronic

unemployment, widespread poverty, food shortages, and political unrest, and modern day Guadalupe, you will also find the natives enjoy the world's highest

rate of prostate cancer. It's always been assumed that the diagnoses were related to the 300 tons

of chlortocone that covers one third of the land surface and

surrounding waters of the islands.

Clorticone is a pesticide, a colorless powdery substance that the maskless workers would apply with their bare hands

on the base end surrounding soil of banana trees.

Clorticone was incredibly effective against the Banana Weevil, a relentless little bugger that has been known to destroy roots and ruin entire crops.

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